The first time it really hit me was in early December, when I covered an Avalanche trip that included a 4-0 victory over the Blues in St. Louis.

I’ve covered the NHL off and on for over 30 years, and much else, and that was perhaps the most exuberant victory celebration I’d ever witnessed for a “routine” regular- season game.

It was as if the Avalanche had just taken state and the players were looking ahead to the pep assembly and celebration at school on Monday.

The context, of course, was that for most of the Avalanche’s existence, victories were both commonplace and expected, and while there could be teasing and fun in the dressing room, it still came off as another night on the job.

I mentioned that to Avalanche winger Chris Stewart two weeks ago, when I was working on a story about his unique background and his close- knit Toronto family, which was rocked by the 2007 death of Chris’ mother, Sue Stewart.

Stewart is all of 22, but four of his teammates — Matt Duchene, Ryan O’Reilly, TJ Galiardi and Peter Mueller — are younger. On the roster at the end of the regular season, seven others also were 25.

Stewart laughed and conceded that at times, this group could come off as a bit “immature” — but he wasn’t embarrassed or anything close to ashamed.

The way it worked out, the Avalanche’s remarkable recovery season left the 2009-10 team with 95 points — the same figure it had in each of Joel Quenneville’s three seasons as head coach, leading into last season’s last-place Western Conference finish.

Chances are, Colorado is going to get outclassed in the first round of the playoffs against San Jose. The Avalanche hasn’t played well down the stretch, and another reason for the slippage is that some teams relatively going through the motions started getting serious as spring approached.

The mood was far from jubilant after the Avalanche finished the regular season Sunday with a 2-1 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings at the Pepsi Center.

But as will be alluded to many times over the next few days, strange things can happen in the NHL playoffs when there is a combination of major pressure in one dressing room and a nothing-to-lose attitude in the other.

Barring an absolute meltdown, the season already is a success, at least on the ice. A decent showing in the series against the Sharks would be another step in rebuilding the season- ticket base, the most crucial element in getting the franchise back among the NHL’s attendance leaders.

A graduate of Wheat Ridge High School and the University of Colorado, Terry Frei has been named a state's sportswriter of the year seven times -- four times in Colorado and three times in Oregon. He's the author of seven books, including the novel "Olympic Affair" about Colorado's Glenn Morris, the 1936 Olympic decathlon champion; and "Third Down and a War to Go," about the 1942 football national champion Wisconsin Badgers and the players' subsequent World War II heroism.

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